THIS time last year Barrow captain Gareth Williamson told the Loughborough Echo he was targeting a fourth placed finish.

On paper it looked an incredibly bold boast for a newly promoted side - with a top four seemingly having been established in the Everards League Premier Division

But instead it proved more than prophetic and in the end after beating previous champions Loughborough Town in the final match of the season the Nottingham Road side finished second, just two points away from winners Lutterworth.

“I said we’d do well at the start of the last season, mainly on the strength of our batting line up,” Williamson remembers. “But for some reason they weren’t quite so dominant.

“Joel Pope (Barrow’s Leicestershire CCC pro last year who averaged over 40 with the bat), did well for us, and he’ll back with us again this year, but I’ll be looking for bigger contributions from the other batsmen so hopefully we’re not relying on the bowlers too much.

“I’m looking for big seasons from the likes of Rishi Patel, West Indian Stan Galloway and Bhargav Modha.

“We’ve got very talented players but no real stars. In the past everybody has contributed something when we needed it but we don’t want to rely on three or four players.”

In that final half of the season Barrow produced nine straight victories and one winning draw to claim second position in the table ahead of Loughborough Town who they beat by 97 runs in that final fixture.

They also went the whole season unbeaten at Nottingham Road but start tomorrow (Saturday) away at Narborough and Littlethorpe.

Williamson believes the greater experience of top flight cricket in Leicestershire will help them in 2010.

“It’s exactly the same team that’s ended the season so well,” he continued. “We still might bring in one or two players but that will be our call.

“The lads are a lot more experienced this year now than they were last year. There’s a lot of strong teams but what you saw last year is that everyone can beat everyone else.

“It’s about keeping that consistency going which is what we did in the last half of last season.

“But we want to enjoy our cricket. The team spirit here is good and everyone of our players gets on.

“When we see other teams you can tell that’s not the case in some of those.”